European Union urges member states to submit youth jobless plans

Youth unemployment rates have topped 50 per cent in Greece, Spain

01/16/2014|hrreporter.com|Last Updated: 01/16/2014

BRUSSELS (Reuters) — The European Union urged Britain, Germany and nine other member states on Wednesday to send in proposals to tackle youth unemployment as soon as possible, saying a lack of action on the problem would threaten the bloc's economic prospects.

Brussels last year agreed a scheme worth up to 8 billion euros ($11.9 billion CAD) to provide jobs, apprenticeships and traineeships to try and reverse growing youth joblessness, which has topped 50 per cent in Greece and Spain.

Britain, Slovenia and Slovakia were among 20 countries who qualified for help under the "Youth Guarantee" scheme in the 2014-2020 period, but the three missed a Dec. 31 deadline to send in proposals on how they would use the cash.

Other countries who did not have a region with a sufficiently high joblessness rate to qualify for the scheme were still supposed to send plans to reduce youth unemployment by early 2014.